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July 2016
Desert Victory: Fourth Indian Division's Epic Story
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Recommended Citation
"Desert Victory: Fourth Indian Division's Epic Story" (2016). War Information Center Pamphlets. Book 530.
http://utdr.utoledo.edu/ur-87-68/530
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DESERT VICTORY
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Cov E R PA GE
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BACK COVER PAGE SIKH VETERAN .
fIR ST PA GE OF TEXT
(OPPOS ITE) , PI CTURE SHOWS l l\D I ANS STO IO U NG A H ILL
UNDER ART I LLE R Y FIRE
(~O TE S HELLB U RS T AT I. EFT ABOUT T E ='/ Y AR DS AHEA D
OF L l "'E OF ADVANC I NG T ROOPS ).
Distributed on behalf of the Government of India by the British Information Services, 1336 New York Avenue, N. W., Washington, D . C.
FTER three and a half years of conflict in the
African war areas, there emerges a triumphan t
record of achievement by the Fourth Indian
Division-"The Fighting Fourth."
Never before in the history of the Indian Army has
one of her infantry divisions maintained such continuous action over so long and difficult a period. The story
of the 4th Division's part in the African campaigns is
one of relentless tenacity and refusal to accept defeat in
fight against tremendous odds. It is a story in which
an Empire is destroyed and a Continent freed. Not once
in the magnificent drive across the vast spaces of North
Africa did the Indian troops falter. They showed the
world that India's fighting soldiers are men of iron, and
that what had been achieved in all the African campaigns could and would be achieved against the Japanese hordes in the fight for freedon1 in the East.
Mostly they were Indians, these men, simple cultivators from the villages and wheat-fields of the Punjab,
stately, bearded Sikhs-magnificent figures of menproud Rajput riflemen, worthy inheritors of a great
martial tradition, hawk-eyed Pathans and fierce Baluchis
from the bleak, sun-blistered hills of the North-West
Frontier, sturdy Gurkhas from Nepal, warlike Maharattas and hardy Garhwalis .. . . Infantry, Mechanized
Cavalry, Ordnance, Supplies, Engineers, Medical Services-all were Indian. Only three battalions and the
gunners were Britons.
When, in August 1939, the 4th Indian Division disembarked in Egypt, not one of its officers or men had ever
handled an anti-tank rifle or mortar. Still on a muletransport basis, the internal combustion engine was unfamiliar to most of them.
100,000 Prisoners
Yet by the winter of 1942, in the thrust and counterthrust of desert fighting, on this most mobile and
n1echanized of all the war fronts, these men of the mules
and mountains had shattered two great armies, and
helped to arrest and set in train the destruction of a third
-the redoubtable Afrika Korps. They had suffered 100
per cent casualties but taken 100,000 prisoners ( that is
seven times their own strength) and destroyed well over
100 aeroplanes and tanks.
They had, in the words of Field-Marshal Wavell,
"fought in the dusty wastes of the Western Desert, in
the bush of the Abyssinian border, on the dry, scorching
plains of the Sudan, in the towering rocky mountains of
Eritrea and Abyssinia, and amid the softer and greener
hills of Syria."
When Italy stabbed at stricken France's back, General
Wavell's small force holding Egypt suddenly found
itself caught between Graziani's mighty host of 300,000,
preparing in Libya to strike down an easy prey, and
another great army of 250,000 in Italian East Africa.
Yet within two short months, in a series of sharp hammer blows, the 4th Indian Division had broken Graziani's army which had been preparing for months for a
triumphant advance into Egypt. In one hour and twentyfive minutes, in the midst of a thick sandstorm that raged
without ceasing for three days, these men, by a brilliant
combination of shock tactics and surprise, had taken
4,000 prisoners and the huge perimeter camp of Nibeiwa,
the key which unlocked the gates of Sidi Barrani, where
the Division added to its bag an Italian Corps Commander and all hi s staff.
Th e E nd of Musso lini's A byssinian Empire
In this moment of triumph, leaving General Wavell's
army to sweep on to Sollum, Bardia, Tobruk and Benghazi, and reap to the full the fruits of their great victory,
the men of the F ourth Division experienced a bitter disappointment. They were withdrawn from the fray. There
was other work for them to do. They had destroyed one
g reat army on th e W est. Now they turned and shattered
another, 2,000 miles to the East.
Operating in some of the most difficult country in the
world, in almost unbearable heat, against positions considered impregnable, it took them just two and a half
months. In Abyssinia they battled on the peaks and
among the clouds for the mountain fortress of Keren.
On the map of this grim and desolate place, which has
been likened to "a great medieval castle whose portcullis
has fallen down and drawbridge has been pulled up in
the face of the triumphant enemy," famous Indian and
British regiments inscribed their
names in letters of blood.
'RajputanaRidge,' 'Sikh Spur,'
'Cameron Ridge,' bear testimony
to feats of endurance, handfuls
of men clinging desperatel y to
the steep craggy sides of these
weeks of clinging grimly to the steep sides of shellracked ridges, the last pinnacle had fallen, the bodies of
Indian riflemen, their bayonets in their hands, were discovered under the topmost boulders. And in the last
resort, it was just such desperate bayonet charges against
overwhelming odds by mere handfuls of men which
finally broke open this "impregnable" natural fortressa fact recognised in the posthumous award of the Victoria Cross to Subedar Richpal Ram of the Rajputana
Rifles- leader of one such valiant little band.
towering razor-edges of pure rock, blasted all the time
by enemy artillery from still unconquered peaks, show·
ered with grenades from above, fired down upon by an
enemy invisible behind huge boulders, ensconced behind
forests of barbed wire.
This time the Division would have given a great deal
to have back the mules it had left behind in India. From
each battalion, one company had to be detached for the
dangerous, back-breaking, unspectacular work of hauling water, ammunition and food up the mountain-sides
to their comrades fighting among the cloud .
A Da·w n Surprise
Superhuman efforts were called for from the Sappers,
clearing mines and debris from the mountain roads
which wound through narrow
gorges. So speedily did the
Sappers work one night lifting mines that when dawn
broke next morning it revealed the Italians busy
laying them only 300
yards ahead !
When, at last, after
I
'
Brea/zing Through a Trap
Back again in the Desert, the Division proved itself
as steadfast in retreat as it had been aggressive in attack,
earning time and again the tribute a French Officer had
paid to it for its part in the deliverance of Damascus from
the Vichy force - Vos lndie11s sont vraiment formidables. Cut off by the
Nazi onrush at Benghazi, its 7th Brigade
forced its way righ t
through Rommel's
ring to fight a brilliant rearguard action, inflicting considerable casualties, leaving behind only wrecked harbours and smoking ruins.
The Division's 11th Brigade had the task of holding
half the perimeter of Tobruk against Rommel's onrush.
To the last round, it stuck limpet-like to its line, adding
one more inspiring chapter to the 4th Division's record.
El Alamein
El Alamein to Tunis is the last chapter of the Divi-
sion's campaign in Africa; its reputation as the spearhead of the Eighth Army was already won after arduous
service on many l\1ideast fronts. It had opened the campaign against the Germans and the Italians shortly after
war started and it was to finish it off when there came
its dramatic transfer from the Eighth to the First Army
in the last few days of the campaign.
Th e Great Chas e
At El Alamein a small number of veteran Indian
troops held on grimly to Ruweisat Ridge. The enemy
was halted and some breathing space needed to reequip and train reinforcements. Then in November
1942, the reinforced Eighth Army under the command
of General Montgomery, broke through the German
lines, led by British armoured formations. The Fourth
Division's role was to create a diversion but one of its
brigades distinguished itself in the subsidiary thrust
opening another path for our armour just north of
Ruweisat Ridge.
So the tide turned. The great chase back through the
length of Ljbya, Cyrenaica and Tripolitania followed.
The capture of Tobruk on November 13th, the occupation of Benghazi seven days later, and then Rommel was
driven fr01n El Agheila. By January 23, 1943, we had
occupied Tripoli and Hal; we had advanced 1,400 miles
in three months.
The Fourth Division took little part in this great
move, however, but came into the picture again when
the Eighth Army smashed its way through the Mareth
defences on the border of Tunis. Gabes Oudref and
Sedjenane were captured March 29th, Sfax and Sousse
by April 12th and Enfidaville, April 20th, and in all
these actions the Fourth Indian Division took a leading
part.
It was in April that Subedar Lal Bahadur Thapa, performed a feat of valor which won him the Victoria Cross
-Britain's highest award for valor- the fifth won by
the Indian Army in this war.
The Subedar, in command of eighteen men, was ordered to secure a gully in a range of hills, on the capture
of which depended the further advance of the whole
Division, since it provided a bridgehead over the
enemy's anti-tank ditch. The Subedar and his men
fought their way through the narrow gully, flanked by
steep cliffs, and exposed to intense and sustained pointblank machine gun fire . When they reached the crest,
only the Subedar and two of his men remained alive, but
the route was open, the tanks went through, and the way
was made ready for the Division.
The official citation said that the Subedar's "ruthless
determination to reach his objective had a decisive effect
on the success of the whole operation."
S ecret Night Marcli
Then came the order to transfer to the first Army in
one of the most dramatic forced night n1arches ever carried out by the Allied force and it ended in the final
thrust against Tunis. During the pitch blackness of the
cloudy moonless night, while the British gunners put
down a curtain of artillery fire, the Division joined the
British Seventh Armoured Division, pulled out of the
Eighth Anny line north of Enfidaville and pushed
northwest as fast as they cou Id go.
It was a triumph in leadership and timing. Divisional
guns, armoured cars and other vehicles moved in the
great battle convoy nose to tail along the winding mountain roads to reach their new battle area-at 1\1edjex. A
single hour after the Divisional Headquarters' arrival
they moved forward again - to attack the Germans'
334th Division.
And a cunning attack too. At dawn, 1\1ay 5th, while
British troops roared "Good old Fourth," lithe Indians
in battle dress, after their eleven n1ile tramp through the
night, began their assault on the German strong point.
Sneaking noiselessly up the hillsides they burst in on
the astonished garrison, their deadly Kukris taking terrible toll. The Germans opened fire with mortars, known
to the Indians as "sobbing sisters," but the men of the
Fourth Division went on mercilessly until the Germans
surrendered after the bitterest hand to hand fighting on
the hill crests.
And to crown all, the German Commander-in-Chief
von Arnim surrendered to the Fourth Division.
It was the end of the African campaign . "The Fourth"
entered Tunis and their work was done - for the time
being.
That the Germans themselves realise· that in Indian
fighting men they have a formidable foe is shown by a
note by a German Intelligence Officer, found when the
Nazis retreated from Benghazi. "So long as the Seventh
British Armoured Division and the Fourth Indian Division are in the desert," it ran, "we must watch out. They
wil l spearhead any attack ."
Now let these men's Briti sh comrades speak. " .. . If
anyone ever suggests to you that Indian troops are not
all that might be desired," wrote a young officer of a
British battalion, "just you clip him one at once. They
are damned good fighters .. .. Although our fellows
cannot speak their language, they get on together in firstclass style. The Indians are so friendly and pleasant, and
yet such MEN ."